Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ The Matchmaker ❯ Face-to-Face With Death ( Chapter 18 )
[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]
By: Makoto Sagara 
Anime/Manga: Gundam Wing Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Comedy / Romance / Supernatural / Angst / Shounen | Type: Yaoi | Uploaded On: 10.23.2012 | Pages: 1 | Words: 2.6K | Visits: 455 | Status: Completed
Anime/Manga: Gundam Wing Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Comedy / Romance / Supernatural / Angst / Shounen | Type: Yaoi | Uploaded On: 10.23.2012 | Pages: 1 | Words: 2.6K | Visits: 455 | Status: Completed
Title: The Matchmaker 18/20?Author: Makoto SagaraSeries: Gundam WingArchive: the usual suspects (ffnet, affnet, Foreverfandom, my site, mediaminer, my update LJ, and the D&DML on yahoo); anywhere else, please ask first.Category: Supernatural, Angst, Romance, and SapPairings: Eventual 2x5x2, 3x4x3, and 1xRx1Rating: M (this chapter) Warnings: Shonen ai, language, angst, sap, het, supernatural dealings, action (this chapter), some torture and blood, violenceDisclaimers: Yeah, like I own Gundam Wing. (Goes off to cry, but not before turning out pockets) I am poor as well. Flames will be used to amuse my muses. They are easily entertained, but highly obnoxious.A/N: La la la, many thanks to Yuki-chan. She knows what she did! I enjoyed writing last chapter. It was an awesome break from reality and the fact that I was under so much pressure. Thanks to all of my reviewers! I love you guys. And Jokes, I can’t tell you how much I adore you and your awesome beta skills and amusing comments!
Chapter Eighteen – Face-to-Face With Death
Trowa watched with some anxiety as Wufei and Heero approached Duo. He spared a look to Quatre, who seemed to be horrified at what he and the other pilot had done. Without thinking, Trowa pulled Quatre over to him, ignoring the fact that the blond was covered in the blood of the man who’d kidnapped the five of them. He felt it was a small price to pay, in light of the situation.
“Oh, what have I done, Trowa?” Quatre whispered.
“He hit you across the face with his weapon. I feel that you reacted normally,” Trowa answered flatly. “If Heero and Wufei hadn’t stopped me, I’m sure that you wouldn’t have had to worry about having his blood all over your clothes.”
Light blue eyes met his, but Trowa couldn’t read what was going on behind them. ‘Now is one of the few times that I wouldn’t mind having Duo’s new ability. Or even Quatre’s.’ He frowned. “What?”
Quatre shook his head, blond hair obscuring his face. “How are they trying to stop Duo?”
“I don’t know, but I don’t think it’s going to be too terribly difficult. He’s still injured.”
“Trowa, you’ve never really had to fight side by side with him like this, have you?” Something in Quatre’s voice made Trowa pause. The only thing close he could think of was that it was fear, paralyzing fear. He shook his head slowly. “Duo doesn’t feel pain. I’ve seen him fight with a broken arm and shattered ribs.”
“Then, how are we…” Trowa couldn’t finish that question. He didn’t think he wanted to know the answer.
“Hopefully, Heero remembers how to deal with him.”
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Heero calculated what the main issue was in their current situation. Noventa and his thugs had been neutralized, one way or another. Quatre was standing back with Trowa, obviously back to his normal self, for which Heero was truly grateful. Chang seemed to be favoring his right arm, but that probably wasn’t going to slow him down. He, himself, had twisted his foot when he’d kicked his target. And he and Chang were face-to-face with Shinigami.
‘Fuck,’ he mentally swore. He raced to try and remember how many times he’d seen this side of his normally maniacally happy friend. ‘Too few, if now is any indication.’
He watched as the braided man gracefully prowled the fallen Noventa, no doubt wondering what to do next to him. Heero knew that he and Chang would have to strike and do it quickly. “Chang, we’ll have to knock him out.”
“He’s already injured, Yuy,” Chang snarled, refusing to take his eyes off of Duo. Heero was forced to respect the fact that the Chinese pilot understood the danger that his boyfriend was, even if he was being stupid about how to handle him.
“The only way to put Shinigami back in the box, as Duo likes to say, is to either knock him out cold or shock his body in another way.”
“And if we don’t?”
“He could turn on us,” Quatre said from his position of relative safety. “Wufei, I know that you don’t want to hurt Duo any more than he already is, but he won’t feel pain right now. And if you hesitate, he’ll use it against you.”
“What do you suggest then, Winner?” Chang asked, still eyeing the braided man as he gave them all a cruel smile.
“That you take Heero’s advice and quickly. He’s the most experienced with Duo and this side of him.”
“Fuck,” the Chinese man growled. “Alright, what’s your plan, Yuy?”
“Follow my lead,” Heero said, before jumping across Noventa’s body to tackle Shinigami. He was rewarded with a sharp punch to his jaw that dazed him for a few beats before he returned the strike with as much strength he could gather.
“It’s nice to see you’re taking this seriously, Yuy,” Duo’s baritone nearly crooned before grabbing Heero’s closest arm and yanking on it. Heero could hear his shoulder scream as the limb was nearly wrenched out of the ball socket. “It’s been so long since I’ve been able to play.”
“It’s time to go back to sleep now,” Heero said through clenched teeth, moving with the other man’s pulling to ease the pressure on his practically useless arm. “You’re not needed anymore.”
“I don’t think so,” was the reply he received before he felt cold steel sink into a jean-clad leg. “Duo keeps me locked up so tightly, and that’s no fun. I much prefer to hear the screams of my enemies than the laughter of children.”
Heero grunted in pain as he tried to move the leg that still had Duo’s hunting knife sticking out of it. ‘Relena’s going to be so pissed that I got injured, and it’s not going to matter who did it either,´ he thought giddily, forcing the pain down so that he could deal with the homicidal maniac in front of him. He could see Chang moving to help him, but unfortunately, so did Shinigami.
“I wouldn’t do that, Chang,”Shinigami said merrily as he pushed down on the knife in Heero’s leg. It was too much, and Heero screamed with the action. “You see what happens when you try to double team me? I don’t play fair. You should know that by now.”
“Duo, let Heero go,” Quatre shouted ineffectually. “You’re going to hate yourself later!”
“Ah, there’s good old Winner. I was wondering where my buddy went. You should have stayed to play some more. The bastard’s still breathing.”
“He can’t be killed, Duo,” Heero whispered.
“Oh, but he can, Yuy. All I have to do is take the knife that is currently in your leg and put it through his throat. Or, I could use one of the many others that are in my lovely braid. They never think to check the hair, do they?” The laughter he gave was cold, bitterly cold, and not remotely the slightest bit sane. “Then, he would never be able to hurt anyone again. Rather poetic, don’t you think, for him to be killed by the man he hired others to kill?"
“Death’s too good for him,” Heero said, blinking his eyes rapidly to keep the moisture back. He couldn’t afford to show weakness of any kind in front of Shinigami. He’d make Heero pay for it if he did. “If he’s dead, it’s over. If he lives, he sits in a cell before he’s tried before the entire Earth Sphere Union, which is led by Relena. He won’t be buying his way out of this.”
“Pretty words, Yuy, but I don’t trust you and your silly girlfriend to help in this situation.”Cold violet eyes stared down at Heero. It was the soft smile that was definitely at odds with the rest of what was going on that alerted him to the danger he was in as Shinigami’s prisoner. “I could just take care of you and deal with the consequences later, but where’s the fun in that?”
Heero really didn’t want to hurt his friend, but he was slowly running out of options as time progressed. He had to act before anything else happened. Besides, his leg really hurt now and he wanted to subdue Duo before he collapsed. With a silent apology to the former Deathscythe pilot, Heero balled up his fist and punched Duo right in the nose. As he fell to the hard ground, he saw violet eyes widen in surprised before they rolled back and Chang rushed to catch the braided man before he incurred any more damage. It was then that he let his mind go blank and passed out.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Wufei quickly categorized Duo’s wounds – the broken nose from Yuy’s punch, the shallow scratch marks on his arms from Noventa, the blood that covered him in a sort of garish paint – and decided that the man in his arms would live but be in a lot more pain than he’d been in previously. Carefully, he placed Duo on the ground and used his Preventer’s jacket as a pillow for his head. He sighed in relief. They were all alive, even if they were injured, but Noventa had been caught.
“Winner, watch over Duo,” Wufei barked out as he took his cellphone from his jacket pocket. “Barton, stop Yuy’s bleeding. I’m going to get someone here to clean this up.” Both men nodded before heading to their assignments and Wufei sighed in frustration. ‘All the paperwork involved in this mess is going to take me until next year,’ he thought sourly as he dialed the number to the Preventers’ Headquarters in Paris.
“Well, well, well, look what the cat drug in,” Sally Po’s voice teased across the line. “What can I do for you, Wufei?”
“Why are you manning Une’s line?” he snapped.
“Because she’s on a conference call with Peacecraft and her political cronies in Geneva,” Po answered light-heartedly. “And since she only trusts four people in her office and I’m the only one of those here, I was the logical person.”
“Fine,” he said through clenched teeth. He’d forgotten how annoying Po could be when left on her own with virtually nothing to do. “I need a cleanup crew sent to…” He looked around at the area he was. “I have no clue. It’s in the outskirts of Calais. Can you trace my coordinates through my phone?”
“Child’s play,” she sing-songed. “What’s happened?”
“Noventa kidnapped us as we left the train station. Yuy is injured, as is Duo. The rest of us have sustained minor injuries, but we have four targets that need to be taken in for questioning.” He kicked at the man Heero had subdued. “Scratch that – three to be questioned and one to be bagged and tagged.”
“Lovely. I’ll send a bus and two units to take the suspects back. Should I let Une know before or after her call?”
“I’ll leave that up to you, Preventer Water.”
“I hate you, Wufei,” she pouted. Sometimes, he wondered how she’d managed to become a doctor and a major in the rebel forces while acting like such a brat half the time. At least Duo…
“Sally, you’d better make that order for two buses. We had a run-in with Shinigami.”
“Who was the primary contact?” She was serious now.
“Yuy.”
“Fuck,” she swore. “Alright, it’ll be twenty minutes. Everyone’s secure, right?”
“Affirmative.”
“I’ll see everyone when you get here.” Wufei made to hang up, but Sally’s voice caught his attention again. “Oh, Wufei?”
“Yes, Po?”
“I’m not helping you with the paperwork on this one. You’re bringing me enough, as is.”
He growled and snapped his phone shut with more force that was necessary. “Twenty minutes and we’ll be heading to headquarters.”
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Duo sighed as he looked around the very familiar garden. He really thought that after the last time, he wouldn’t be seeing the angels again. It irritated him to be back there. He didn’t care what the two meddling supernatural creatures, or their Master, wanted from him. He wanted to know if his friends were okay and if Noventa had been dealt with. “Alright, guys, you can come out now. This is getting kinda old. I was really enjoying not seeing you two clowns every time I closed my eyes.”
“Aw, Thaz, isn’t he a sweet kid?” the white-haired and clad angel said as he and his darker counterpart appeared before Duo.
“I dunno, Maximus,” the darker angel answered. “He looks a little irked to me.”
“Well, you would be pissed if you were kidnapped by a man that had been trying to kill you for months, along with your lover and friends, as well!” Duo snarled, feeling a blinding pain behind his large eyes. “What the hell do you want this time?”
“Since the last time we spoke with you, we were forced to watch from the sidelines, with no contact,” Maximus answered, folding his white wings against his body before sitting down on the lush grass. “This time, we’ve come with permission.”
“O-kay? So?” Duo was not impressed with his companions.
“Alright, Mr. I-Don’t-Really-Know-Who-I-Am,” Thazerus said, sitting next to his friend. “The Master has a proposition for you.”
“Oh, and what does your mysterious Master have to offer me that I care to hear?” Duo asked, slightly curious by this point.
“You are aware of the other side of your personality, are you not?” Maximus asked.
“Kinda, it’s not like I am really in control when I switch into Shinigami-mode though,” he answered, taking a sit across from the angels and rubbing his temples. “Is there a point to this?”
“You have a choice to make, Duo Maxwell,” Thazerus said, pulling on the dark strands of his hair. “We can take one thing from you that you cannot control.”
“You mean you can make this stupid mind-reading shit go away? I was just getting used to it, kinda. I mean, being around crowds sucks, but otherwise, it’s not so bad.”
“We can take away your telepathy,” Maximus stated calmly, “or Shinigami.”
“What is your decision, Duo?” Thazerus asked seriously.
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Chapter Eighteen – Face-to-Face With Death
Trowa watched with some anxiety as Wufei and Heero approached Duo. He spared a look to Quatre, who seemed to be horrified at what he and the other pilot had done. Without thinking, Trowa pulled Quatre over to him, ignoring the fact that the blond was covered in the blood of the man who’d kidnapped the five of them. He felt it was a small price to pay, in light of the situation.
“Oh, what have I done, Trowa?” Quatre whispered.
“He hit you across the face with his weapon. I feel that you reacted normally,” Trowa answered flatly. “If Heero and Wufei hadn’t stopped me, I’m sure that you wouldn’t have had to worry about having his blood all over your clothes.”
Light blue eyes met his, but Trowa couldn’t read what was going on behind them. ‘Now is one of the few times that I wouldn’t mind having Duo’s new ability. Or even Quatre’s.’ He frowned. “What?”
Quatre shook his head, blond hair obscuring his face. “How are they trying to stop Duo?”
“I don’t know, but I don’t think it’s going to be too terribly difficult. He’s still injured.”
“Trowa, you’ve never really had to fight side by side with him like this, have you?” Something in Quatre’s voice made Trowa pause. The only thing close he could think of was that it was fear, paralyzing fear. He shook his head slowly. “Duo doesn’t feel pain. I’ve seen him fight with a broken arm and shattered ribs.”
“Then, how are we…” Trowa couldn’t finish that question. He didn’t think he wanted to know the answer.
“Hopefully, Heero remembers how to deal with him.”
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Heero calculated what the main issue was in their current situation. Noventa and his thugs had been neutralized, one way or another. Quatre was standing back with Trowa, obviously back to his normal self, for which Heero was truly grateful. Chang seemed to be favoring his right arm, but that probably wasn’t going to slow him down. He, himself, had twisted his foot when he’d kicked his target. And he and Chang were face-to-face with Shinigami.
‘Fuck,’ he mentally swore. He raced to try and remember how many times he’d seen this side of his normally maniacally happy friend. ‘Too few, if now is any indication.’
He watched as the braided man gracefully prowled the fallen Noventa, no doubt wondering what to do next to him. Heero knew that he and Chang would have to strike and do it quickly. “Chang, we’ll have to knock him out.”
“He’s already injured, Yuy,” Chang snarled, refusing to take his eyes off of Duo. Heero was forced to respect the fact that the Chinese pilot understood the danger that his boyfriend was, even if he was being stupid about how to handle him.
“The only way to put Shinigami back in the box, as Duo likes to say, is to either knock him out cold or shock his body in another way.”
“And if we don’t?”
“He could turn on us,” Quatre said from his position of relative safety. “Wufei, I know that you don’t want to hurt Duo any more than he already is, but he won’t feel pain right now. And if you hesitate, he’ll use it against you.”
“What do you suggest then, Winner?” Chang asked, still eyeing the braided man as he gave them all a cruel smile.
“That you take Heero’s advice and quickly. He’s the most experienced with Duo and this side of him.”
“Fuck,” the Chinese man growled. “Alright, what’s your plan, Yuy?”
“Follow my lead,” Heero said, before jumping across Noventa’s body to tackle Shinigami. He was rewarded with a sharp punch to his jaw that dazed him for a few beats before he returned the strike with as much strength he could gather.
“It’s nice to see you’re taking this seriously, Yuy,” Duo’s baritone nearly crooned before grabbing Heero’s closest arm and yanking on it. Heero could hear his shoulder scream as the limb was nearly wrenched out of the ball socket. “It’s been so long since I’ve been able to play.”
“It’s time to go back to sleep now,” Heero said through clenched teeth, moving with the other man’s pulling to ease the pressure on his practically useless arm. “You’re not needed anymore.”
“I don’t think so,” was the reply he received before he felt cold steel sink into a jean-clad leg. “Duo keeps me locked up so tightly, and that’s no fun. I much prefer to hear the screams of my enemies than the laughter of children.”
Heero grunted in pain as he tried to move the leg that still had Duo’s hunting knife sticking out of it. ‘Relena’s going to be so pissed that I got injured, and it’s not going to matter who did it either,´ he thought giddily, forcing the pain down so that he could deal with the homicidal maniac in front of him. He could see Chang moving to help him, but unfortunately, so did Shinigami.
“I wouldn’t do that, Chang,”Shinigami said merrily as he pushed down on the knife in Heero’s leg. It was too much, and Heero screamed with the action. “You see what happens when you try to double team me? I don’t play fair. You should know that by now.”
“Duo, let Heero go,” Quatre shouted ineffectually. “You’re going to hate yourself later!”
“Ah, there’s good old Winner. I was wondering where my buddy went. You should have stayed to play some more. The bastard’s still breathing.”
“He can’t be killed, Duo,” Heero whispered.
“Oh, but he can, Yuy. All I have to do is take the knife that is currently in your leg and put it through his throat. Or, I could use one of the many others that are in my lovely braid. They never think to check the hair, do they?” The laughter he gave was cold, bitterly cold, and not remotely the slightest bit sane. “Then, he would never be able to hurt anyone again. Rather poetic, don’t you think, for him to be killed by the man he hired others to kill?"
“Death’s too good for him,” Heero said, blinking his eyes rapidly to keep the moisture back. He couldn’t afford to show weakness of any kind in front of Shinigami. He’d make Heero pay for it if he did. “If he’s dead, it’s over. If he lives, he sits in a cell before he’s tried before the entire Earth Sphere Union, which is led by Relena. He won’t be buying his way out of this.”
“Pretty words, Yuy, but I don’t trust you and your silly girlfriend to help in this situation.”Cold violet eyes stared down at Heero. It was the soft smile that was definitely at odds with the rest of what was going on that alerted him to the danger he was in as Shinigami’s prisoner. “I could just take care of you and deal with the consequences later, but where’s the fun in that?”
Heero really didn’t want to hurt his friend, but he was slowly running out of options as time progressed. He had to act before anything else happened. Besides, his leg really hurt now and he wanted to subdue Duo before he collapsed. With a silent apology to the former Deathscythe pilot, Heero balled up his fist and punched Duo right in the nose. As he fell to the hard ground, he saw violet eyes widen in surprised before they rolled back and Chang rushed to catch the braided man before he incurred any more damage. It was then that he let his mind go blank and passed out.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Wufei quickly categorized Duo’s wounds – the broken nose from Yuy’s punch, the shallow scratch marks on his arms from Noventa, the blood that covered him in a sort of garish paint – and decided that the man in his arms would live but be in a lot more pain than he’d been in previously. Carefully, he placed Duo on the ground and used his Preventer’s jacket as a pillow for his head. He sighed in relief. They were all alive, even if they were injured, but Noventa had been caught.
“Winner, watch over Duo,” Wufei barked out as he took his cellphone from his jacket pocket. “Barton, stop Yuy’s bleeding. I’m going to get someone here to clean this up.” Both men nodded before heading to their assignments and Wufei sighed in frustration. ‘All the paperwork involved in this mess is going to take me until next year,’ he thought sourly as he dialed the number to the Preventers’ Headquarters in Paris.
“Well, well, well, look what the cat drug in,” Sally Po’s voice teased across the line. “What can I do for you, Wufei?”
“Why are you manning Une’s line?” he snapped.
“Because she’s on a conference call with Peacecraft and her political cronies in Geneva,” Po answered light-heartedly. “And since she only trusts four people in her office and I’m the only one of those here, I was the logical person.”
“Fine,” he said through clenched teeth. He’d forgotten how annoying Po could be when left on her own with virtually nothing to do. “I need a cleanup crew sent to…” He looked around at the area he was. “I have no clue. It’s in the outskirts of Calais. Can you trace my coordinates through my phone?”
“Child’s play,” she sing-songed. “What’s happened?”
“Noventa kidnapped us as we left the train station. Yuy is injured, as is Duo. The rest of us have sustained minor injuries, but we have four targets that need to be taken in for questioning.” He kicked at the man Heero had subdued. “Scratch that – three to be questioned and one to be bagged and tagged.”
“Lovely. I’ll send a bus and two units to take the suspects back. Should I let Une know before or after her call?”
“I’ll leave that up to you, Preventer Water.”
“I hate you, Wufei,” she pouted. Sometimes, he wondered how she’d managed to become a doctor and a major in the rebel forces while acting like such a brat half the time. At least Duo…
“Sally, you’d better make that order for two buses. We had a run-in with Shinigami.”
“Who was the primary contact?” She was serious now.
“Yuy.”
“Fuck,” she swore. “Alright, it’ll be twenty minutes. Everyone’s secure, right?”
“Affirmative.”
“I’ll see everyone when you get here.” Wufei made to hang up, but Sally’s voice caught his attention again. “Oh, Wufei?”
“Yes, Po?”
“I’m not helping you with the paperwork on this one. You’re bringing me enough, as is.”
He growled and snapped his phone shut with more force that was necessary. “Twenty minutes and we’ll be heading to headquarters.”
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Duo sighed as he looked around the very familiar garden. He really thought that after the last time, he wouldn’t be seeing the angels again. It irritated him to be back there. He didn’t care what the two meddling supernatural creatures, or their Master, wanted from him. He wanted to know if his friends were okay and if Noventa had been dealt with. “Alright, guys, you can come out now. This is getting kinda old. I was really enjoying not seeing you two clowns every time I closed my eyes.”
“Aw, Thaz, isn’t he a sweet kid?” the white-haired and clad angel said as he and his darker counterpart appeared before Duo.
“I dunno, Maximus,” the darker angel answered. “He looks a little irked to me.”
“Well, you would be pissed if you were kidnapped by a man that had been trying to kill you for months, along with your lover and friends, as well!” Duo snarled, feeling a blinding pain behind his large eyes. “What the hell do you want this time?”
“Since the last time we spoke with you, we were forced to watch from the sidelines, with no contact,” Maximus answered, folding his white wings against his body before sitting down on the lush grass. “This time, we’ve come with permission.”
“O-kay? So?” Duo was not impressed with his companions.
“Alright, Mr. I-Don’t-Really-Know-Who-I-Am,” Thazerus said, sitting next to his friend. “The Master has a proposition for you.”
“Oh, and what does your mysterious Master have to offer me that I care to hear?” Duo asked, slightly curious by this point.
“You are aware of the other side of your personality, are you not?” Maximus asked.
“Kinda, it’s not like I am really in control when I switch into Shinigami-mode though,” he answered, taking a sit across from the angels and rubbing his temples. “Is there a point to this?”
“You have a choice to make, Duo Maxwell,” Thazerus said, pulling on the dark strands of his hair. “We can take one thing from you that you cannot control.”
“You mean you can make this stupid mind-reading shit go away? I was just getting used to it, kinda. I mean, being around crowds sucks, but otherwise, it’s not so bad.”
“We can take away your telepathy,” Maximus stated calmly, “or Shinigami.”
“What is your decision, Duo?” Thazerus asked seriously.
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